Train Loss

An eclectic day. Lost a shoe in the metro. Literally. While getting on the metro catie lost her flip flop onto the track. We all jumped back out to try and retrieve it. Not my best parenting moment as I tried to get thomas to jump down between trains to retrieve it. Thank heavens he had more sense than me. Finally came up with a better plan to get help at the ticket booth. Obviously not the first time this has happened. They arrived with long pincers and retrieved it after firmly telling me "attend". We had to wait until the tracks were cleared both ways which meant waiting for 3 more trains to pass. It is good to have 2 shoes. (link)

Where is my shoe? At Seoul’s subway… it is very dangerous! Especially if you run like crazy to enter before doors close. Result: a lost shoe for me. :D And naturally, the shops are closed at the time of my loss. I thank you Piere for having offered his shoe. (link)

﻿Woman lost other shoe at Vauxhall station, and apparently London SW trains managed to find it and she collected it the same evening. (twitter)

Kelsey lost one of her sandals trying to get on the Metro (in Paris). As she was stepping in it slipped right under the train! Our first destination was a shoe store!! (link)

(Paris) metro is quite crazy compared to the tube. … They are PACKED so you have to pay attention of whats going on and what stop you are at, plus the whole everything in French thing makes in a little more difficult. So as we were on our way over to the Pompidou museum to try to go to it before it closed for the night. The metro pulls up to one of the stops and our car is totally full and this crazy old french lady comes steam rolling from the back trying to get off and in the process pushes Stephanie, Fran, and Alyssa out of the way. So Steph is holding on to Fran, and Fran is trying to keep hold of Alyssa and Alyssa gets her leg shoved down the gap between the car and the platform. Bye bye shoe. Gone. Alyssa was quite the sight. She looked like she had just gotten into a fight with her tights ripped and walking around Paris with one shoe. Hilarious. (link)﻿

Chloe has contributed a loss suffered by her friend Lauren (September 2014): “My best friend dropped her shoe in between the train and the platform this morning. She is now currently walking around London like a homeless person, it really would make her day that inch better if you could post her feet on your lovely website. (please see attached photo, she kindly painted her toenails)".

Lost a shoe (during train ride presumably in or around Paris). (﻿link)

In Honk Kong subway, a slipper falls through the gap. Due to security door separating the platform from the tracks, she gets the help of station attendant to get it back. You can watch part of what happened afterwards on youtube...

Madrid subway: We had quite the Metro station adventure. A girl in my group lost her flip flop on the train tracks while running to catch the train. No Metro officials were around to help, but we were able to borrow a mop from a janitor to hook the flip flop (while covering it in gross mop water) and bring it back up to the platform. However, in order to do this, my friend had to LIE ON THE FLOOR OF THE METRO STATION!

You have to ride a lot of tubes before you find your Prince. ﻿As the girl behind me jumped between the closing doors with a tiny yelp of success her slip of a shoe fell behind, lost to the enemy gates closing with their familiar whoomph… She let me take a photo of her mismatched feet. This was either a sign of her confused and frightened state or yet another person seeking their 15 minutes through any channel possible. At the next stop she got off in order to go back one stop and hopefully find her shoe. We joked briefly about the idea that her Prince had found the shoe and was waiting to be reunited with both its left compatriot and his true – if slightly frazzled – love. She was less convinced than I, but then I wasn’t going to test the theory. (link)

Ladies is pushed and foot stepped on trying to board train and loses her left shoe :O( And typical fashion, the station Masters don't want to help because of Red tape causing the lady to suffer more anguish. Finally, the person shooting the video climbs down and retrieves the shoe for her. (﻿youtube)

Female station attendant in Moscow subway is pushed onto the tracks by a man. When pulled up, she left behind one shoe and walks away one-shod. (youtube)

If you were riding on the train to Traralgon on Friday and saw a woman wearing one shoe, her name was Kaye and this is what happened. Kaye had been in the city and was catching the 2.36pm train home. As she was about to step onto the train, somebody stepped on the back of her shoe and it came off and fell on the tracks. As the train was leaving, there wasn't anything Kaye could do, so she had to make the trip home wearing one high-heel. “On the train, a V-Line conductor noticed me wearing one shoe and asked what had happened. I told him. He made a call and later that night I received a phone call from the station at Traralgon telling me that my shoe had arrived and I could go and collect it. They'd found it, put it on a later train and returned it to me.” (﻿heraldsun.com)

The Beijing subway authorities offer passengers free footwear if they happen to lose their shoes during rush hours. (﻿Link)

School trip: Rowzbin Akhtar a local resident in Manor Park drops her right shoe onto the tracks as she quickly boards a train in East Ham station.She was the last to board the train, we were all on our way to Westminster Hall to watch Poetry Live! So there was no going back.

Embarassing moment: You know, sometimes the most embarrassing thing can happen to you. One day, I was getting off the train, and I realized my next step was very cold I looked down my shoes gone!!! What the? My shoe slipped off to rail!!! There wasnt any employees around me except a guy in front of a vending machine. I asked him for help. He said he would call employees. Five minutes later, three employees came to me and found my shoe on the rail. They were checking the arriving time of the next train and then, one of the guys picked my shoe up with big long tongs safely yet effortlessly.

From the news: In morning rush hour, Carole Markowitz was about to get on the subway when the car door started coming toward her, trapping her leg completely between the train and the platform. In the narrow space less than six inches wide Carole lost her shoe onto the track and started to panic. She screamed. That was when she felt arms under her shoulders, lifting her like a rag doll. A passenger saved her then disappeared into the crowd. Click here for video.

Mind the Gap Katie: On a recent trip to London to see several of our clients, Katie came a cropper while on the return journey. We have all heard the mind the gap announcements at nearly every train station well, Katie certainly did mind the gap while climbing on board the 4.06 train from Paddington, unfortunately one of her shoes didnt! Can you believe it. Poor Katie had to travel back to Newton Abbot wearing just one shoe after it fell off her foot while climbing on board the train and fell between the train and the platform. Luckily, Dave her boyfriend met her at the station to carry her home.

I lost my shoe on the way to work today. I was getting on the train and my shoe (new pair of black flats) slipped off right in between the small hole between the train platform and the train.When I realized it had happened, the train doors closed instantly and there I was with only one shoe. I went to H&M and bought a cheap 5E pair of flip flops but felt like an idiot walking around the shopping center in only one shoe :) Thank god my office is under construction today and barely anyone is here because we're business professional and flip flops are a no no. Contributed by "kinja".

Notice anything wrong here? The princess lost her shoe! I see eight feet and seven shoes. Looks like the girl in the stripes didn't "mind the gap" when this party boarded Breda 3072 at Crystal City. She got in, and her flip-flop escaped, falling through the gap between the platform and the train. Interestingly enough, though, despite the fact that with flip-flops, your feet are basically exposed to the environment, she decided to hobble around like she had a hurt leg or something because of that missing shoe - she wouldn't let that foot touch the ground. She wouldn't even touch the carpet on the Metro train with her foot. I think that was a touch extreme. Watch your step, sure, because you never know when there might be broken glass or something on the ground. But to hop around on one leg? That's a little extreme. From a web journal...

Shoe stuck on the wall of London metro subway station. Photographed and posted by many, who were all intrigued by odd location of the shoe. Since it is beyond high-voltage railing, perhaps maintenance crews found and put it there in hopesthat owner could see & claim her shoe. (flickr)

Posted by Nickyd44 in yahoo answers site: Boarding a Silverlink train at Stratford. I had slip ons and a commuter stepped on the back and it slipped off onto the track. The woman in question was so rude she barged onto the train and sat down as though nothing had happened. I was left hobbling on the platform. Fortunately I was with two colleagues. I had to miss the train to try and obtain my sandal from the platform. Once the train had departed, my colleague who is about 5ft jumped down, retrieved my shoe and myself and the other colleague hauled her up. If it wasn't for them I really dont know what I would have done. I was home late that evening, but at least I had my BOTH my shoes!!!

In Voorhout railway station, Netherlands, this solitary shoe laying on the tracks finds its explanation in a lady in great hurry, whose shoe slipped off while boarding the train and she did not bother recovering it. (roadside.com)

After my flip flop was lost in the tracks of the metro (while visiting France) (webshots)

Getting off the train, Japanese woman dropped her shoe ontracks. A metro attendent recovered the shoe using a stickbefore next train rushed in, and she was reunited with her shoe. Abye-stander photographed it all and posted in the Only in Japan blog.Contributed by "Kinja".

Kathy shopping in London with only one shoe: It was time to make our way back to the “tube” and head home. As we approached the station, I checked the time and we had approximately three minutes to go. We quickly ran down the stairs, clutching tightly to our bags. The train pulled up right as we hit the bottom of the stairs. “This way”, Kathy yelled as she was directly in front of me. With a rush of a few others, we ran towards an open door. Just as we were getting into the train car, my foot hit up against Kathy’s left foot heel and her shoe came off. It fell perfectly between the train and the platform to the bottom of the rail. As she realized what happened and turned around, the door closed shut. She looked at me and then to her foot with a shocked expression. As I realized what happened, Kathy busted out laughing. There she stood with one foot fully covered and the other with just a sock. I too, couldn’t help but to laugh. It was hysterical to see her standing there with both arms full of shopping bags and one foot with only a sock on. The entire ride home, we tried to contain ourselves but it didn’t work. All we had to do was look at each other and we would immediately bust out laughing. Others around us would look oddly at the two hysterical Americans. They had no clue as to why we were laughing. As we got off the train to walk the three blocks to the hotel, I again was grateful that my traveling companion was Kathy. Who else would have taken it all in stride and laugh at her own misfortune?

Contributed by Laura on Jan 21st, 2014:Was lucky enough to join this Subway Cinderella club today! My right flat slipped off my foot and into the gap between the subway platform and the downtown B train at 59th Street. Had to ride the train down to 34th Street with one bare foot, and did I mention there's a blizzard outside? After I got there, I hopped out, then took my infinity scarf off and wrapped it twice around my bare foot. Then came my walk of shame to the shoe store. I knew I could make it up to Manhattan Mall and just tried to act like I had a cast on my foot, but then the entrance to Manhattan Mall was closed and two female cops said I'd have to walk outside in the snow to get to the shoe store. When I walked in and bought a cheap pair of flats, somehow nobody seemed to notice that I only had one shoe! I guess that's just typical New York...

﻿Yahoo answers: What would you do if you lost your high heel in the tube (metro)? It happens regularly as I'm sure a lot of the city girls will agree. Here in London, the tube is always packed at rush hour (and by 'Tube' I mean the Metro for all you continental Europeans and Americans). Also, at the Bank Station, there's a large gap between the platform and the train. On Thursday I was going home from work and waiting for the train. The platform was as usual, overcrowded and I was at the edge waiting for the next train. When It arrived I put my left foot into the train after we allowed some passengers off, but as I was lifting my right foot, someone stepped on the back of my red peep toe Prada high heels really hard, scraping the back of my foot and to my horror knocking my shoe off my barefoot and it feel in between the platform and the train!! That's right, under the train tracks! I tried to get back out, but as there were several dozen people pushing to get it, I was forced into the train carriage with only one shoe on. I panicked as the doors closed. Unfortunately, not only was I horribly embarrassed for the entire 20 mins journey on the train and then the 10 mins walk barefoot to my flat afterwards, but I also lost a really expensive pair of shoes!!

The other day i managed to get a interview in the next town (Dawlish) this requires me to jump on a train at Teignmouth and ride for 5 minutes to get to my next destination, of which then i would walk 5-8 minutes to the interview. So i got ready, looking smart yet casual, with a slightly 1/2 size too big pair of ballet shoes on…after fumbling around with my iphone, trying to choose some music to put me in a good state of mind ready for what i thought would be a grueling interview, i step on to the train feeling confident about my appearance but i realise my foot feels somewhat bare. I look down and i have only one shoe on….i glance down in between the train and the platform and there humbly is my shoe laying on the rail track. So being the ever so annoying passenger i inform the train assistant not caring about the trains departure…unfortunately the train assistant didnt care at all and while the platform assistant tried to help, she mentioned that i would have to stay and get on the next train….hmmm this couldn’t happen considering i had an INTERVIEW! So i jumped on the train…. surprisingly no one considered laughing at me in the slightest…so i reached my destination and walked up through town to find the only shoe shop in the whole of Dawlish…where i purchased another pair of unwanted interview shoes. I managed to get to the interview on time…obviously enlightening them with my lost shoe story! I got back my other shoe and now have 2 pairs of unwanted 1/2 size too big ballet pumps with another pair i had to get for a wedding! (link)

﻿Went under in Down Under: Saturday night in the land down under! It was our friend Gabe's 23rd birthday so we all decided to celebrate it the Aussie way, which involves a lot of drinking and not much else. We left halls and headed to town around 9pm. When we got to Oakleigh station, I ran off to go to the washroom (apparently) and someone yelled "Winnie the train is leaving!" So I ran for my life to catch the train. As I leapt onto the train, my shoe slipped off my foot and into the crevice between the platform and the train, thus effectively losing my shoe. As expected when you are me. We headed to a bar in the city called "The Lucky Coq." My greatest accomplishment of the night might have been getting in with one shoe, but I can't be too sure :). The Lucky Coq had 2 levels, the bottom level with seating and a bar, the top with some couches and a dance floor. People kept breaking glass all night (myself included) so it was quite the challenge to navigate the dark room, intoxicated, with one shoe, and glass all over the floor. Magically, I made my way around just fine! Next day, on our way home, we stopped at Oakleigh station where I had lost my shoe the night before, and decided to go see if we could find it. We peered into the tracks and low and behold, my flat was sitting right there! We retrieved it, though train attendant was not very impressed with us.

Single Mom’s Story of the Lost Shoe: light the train, but then and as quick as lightening it happened. I am left standing in the rain with one shoe on. Angry and shocked I stand open mouthed looking straight at the woman whom pushed her way passed me so aggressively that I stumbled and my shoe came off my foot and fell through the gap and onto the railway line. Eyes bulging drenched wet tights and enraged I can't speak. In true style, people look away pretending nothing happened and ignore me, including the culprit. The doors shut and I watch in amazement as my train pulls away. It's raining, it's cold, I am at the furthest part of the concourse and if my journey home wasn't joyless enough, I am now standing on one foot feeling quite embarrassed. I haven't yet decided what to do. Do I leave the one shoe on or take it off? Do I hop to find a guard or do I wait for the next train? So, I do what any helpless woman would do in this situation and phone my Mum. Ranting down the phone to my Mum she simply says "well I'm not sure what I can do (can I hear a snigger?!), just get on the next train maybe", "with one shoe on"! I yell. I say goodbye and then decide I have no other option other than to take my one shoe off and run for it. Perhaps then no-one will notice I have no shoes on or they will get out of my way because they will think I am a nutter - great option. After my mad dash in the rain with no shoes on, I find a guard who looks like he could do with a good wash. "Excuse me, can you help me I need help please, excuse me". Standing there with one shoe in my hand and no shoes on my feet, I think the issue is obvious but no, he requires an explanation. If I haven't already had enough humiliation for one day, a group of what can only be described as Brad Pitt rugby player types are standing beside me sniggering and I now have to relay the whole story. "Oh I see, well you will have to show me where it is","er, does this mean I will have to come with you? It' right at the top of the concourse". As I was pretty sure there was not a sea of shoes on the railway, I was quite positive my shoe wouldn't be difficult to find. But I was mistaken - "Sorry love, you'll have to come with me" and then he picked up, what only can be described as an extra long fishing rod with a bright orange tip. So, the hike began. It felt like I'd been asked to walk the plank, my shoe in my hand and eveyone looking at me, I imagine everyone geering at me and chucking rotten tomatoes. I look up and women look at me in sympathy, glad that it isn't them and men seem to be tutting or give me the 'you pathetic woman' look. "Stop"! I yelled, "here, it's down there". The boy starts to tell me it's his first day and how he can't wait to tell everyone about me and my shoe. "What" I spit, my blood boiling. Realising, that it's not a good time to make idol chat, he stutters "oh, w-w-what does your shoe look like". What does it bloody look like I thought, did he actually say that? Is he joking? With that, my bulging eye syndrome took over, I lifted the shoe and said pointing to the shoe "like this one, how many shoes are down there"! Looking a little on edge, the boy grabbed the one shoe on the railway line with the 'fishing rod' and lifted my shoe into the air. For a few seconds (a long time when you are under scrutiny and look like a mental patient) my shoe was left swaying to and fro in the air in the rain about 2 feet above me and now everyone really was looking - and laughing! The boy seemed pleased with himself and showed it off like a trophy. Witnessing my desperation the boy brought the shoe down and gave it to me. At last! I have shoes! I put the shoe on, the show was over.

﻿Eva loses her shoe: I ran toward the subway door with Hind, a lovely girl from my hostel, following a few steps behind. We were on our way to a gig by the California band and perhaps a bit late, so I thought I would hold the subway door for a couple of seconds while she caught up with me. Most subways I’ve been in, if someone is standing in the door, it bounces off of them and opens back up. Not in Seoul! It continued to close on me so I squeezed/jumped back out onto the platform, but on the way out, it closed quickly behind me and grabbed my shoe off of my foot. Since the door had something in it, we thought maybe it would open back up, so we didn’t grab at it, and then the second set of doors closed and off the train went. At many stations in Asia there is glass blocking the tracks so that people can’t jump onto them in front of a train. I thought my shoe was a gonner. The train door had been a good foot away from the platform, so even when it opened back up at the next station, it would fall onto the tracks and there would be no way to retrieve it. On the platform I didn’t know what to do! We really wanted to go to the concert and I didn’t want to turn back and not do anything with my night. I felt it would look better to be barefoot than to walk around with one shoe on, so I took the remaining one off. But not before taking a pouty photo on the platform! We then catch the next train, I, a white girl, prancing onto the subway barefoot. When I got on that subway, obviously seeming like some bizarre foreigner, no one looked at me. And then: I’m fretting about my shoe when the train pulls up at the next stop, and lo and behold, there is my shoe sitting on the platform at the exact same door entrance as it stopped at the last station. The gap was smaller from the subway to the platform at this stop, and there it sat. Part of the toe was ripped from dragging along the side until it reached the door it seemed, but I had it back at least to wear out for the night to the concert! I jumped up, “hooray!”, grabbed it, and sat back down. No one flinched. In North America I might have even expected a public cheer for the reuniting with my shoe, but still no one looked at me.

Account by "Twinkle Toes in Blogs Myspace: Ok, slight embarrassing moment happened to me on monday whilst getting off the train. Omg!! Well, i LOST MY SHOE!!! Godammit! ﻿Anyway...i was wearing a pair of ballet type slip on shoes - i'm sure the majority of you know the sort.Well, as i was getting off the train my shoe slipped off my left foot and didn't just fall off my foot.. but it slipped down the side of the train onto the track! ARRRGGHHH!!!! So there was me left shoe-less and standing on the platform. I was contemplating whether or not to risk near suicide and jump onto the track to redeem it. Or asking someone to help aid me to get it. Didn't fancy retrieving it myself though. Imagine the attention i would've got?!! Saying that though, i would've got some right funny looks from people if they saw me walking home - shoe less! Luckily for me, not many people were around. Moralof the story. Don't get on/off trains with slip on shoes It was my local station anyway. I am going back there today to see if my shoe is still there or if it has been run over by the train. I have actually kept my other shoe as i was kinda hoping i would get my other one back. It's probably a right mess at the moment if the train has run over it. Aww poor shoe.

Luxembourg Cable Car: Google translation of a streetcar loss as told in a Dutch website by a person from the Hague: A friend always bought shoes that were slightly too wide and one would often slip off. Emmy didn't mind if her shoe slipped from her foot, and usually walked a few steps on her stockings as she hasn't immediately noticed! Then she askedme to put her lost shoe back on her foot. But at times she ended up losing a shoe at the oddest places, as she stepped into the bus or in a theater where she forgot one of her golden sandals. Visiting Luxembourg, she hadbright red sleigh slippers with high heels on, and one slipper glided to land on the rails of the cable car. She had to spend the rest of the day on a single high-heel, and ruined her stockings.This must be happening quite often that Emmy took back her shoe amongst the slipper collection at the local toursit office (correct translation?).

﻿Oxford Circus: Posted by Flange1971 in response to the question "have you ever lost a shoe?" ... "I had two near misses with shoes.....and one was at Oxford Circus. Commuter hour, the tube arrived and everyone started shoving their way in. I was very near the front but, as I stepped on, someone trod on the back of one of my shoes and it flipped off onto the platform. Id already had a bad day, which is my excuse for then screaming at the plethora of people on the platform to get back, before picking up my shoe and jumping back into the tube just before the door shut. Thus leaving me with an empty tube and a smug expression. The other time was as I was getting onto a train and again, a woman trod on the my heel and the shoe came off and landed on the door step. She reached down to pick it up, and promptly knocked it onto the tracks. Genius. So I had to miss my train and hop back up the platform and up the stairs to get someone to come and fish it off the tracks for me. Amazingly, considering it had just been run over by a train, it was in one piece.

From blog Smart is Cool: This is dedicated to the NYC stranger, Michael: My knight in shining armor. ... On my way to an important meeting with a radio celebrity, I hopped on the subway at Spring Street, NYC. While rushing to board the train, my shoe incident began. My heel got caught in the lip of the yellow painted line at the edge of the platform. I stumbled onto the train and right out of my shoe! Before I knew it I was standing on the train a little shell shocked, missing one shoe. As I turned, the dread flowed through me as I then witnessed, in slow motion, my remaining shoes birth twin tumbling with grace onto the tracks. Two men gently ushered me back onto the platform to try to retrieve my now orphaned shoe. I embarrassedly hopped over to the booth and told the unusually attentive MTA worker what happened. She radioed men to the tracks to retrieve it; she stated it would be a while. Using the most feminine and nimble stair hop I could manage, I rose to street level in search of a pair of surrogate shoes. I was never so happy to see H&M! I hopped over there, hopped to the shoe department, bought a pair of cheap flats and ran full speed back to the subway straight to the attendant. Dre gonna haf-ta stop da trains ta get da shew. Whadda-ya wanna do lady? I thought of my shoe with a sad mourning. My SIC meeting was vital to the greater good of the SIC community. The interview was important. I knew I had to sacrifice one, for the good of the many. Shoe abandonment; left on the tracks in the filth, with the rats and of course no shoe in sight to keep her company. It broke my heart, but sometimes our hand is forced. I took a moment of silence. No, please dont stop the trains I have a very important meeting and I need to get uptown. She started to say something about the shoe becoming the property of the NYC transit. Right then is when a gentleman handed me a Duane Reade plastic bag and said Excuse miss I got you a pair of flip flops. On autopilot, I took the bag and said thank you. In a blink, the man was gone. Then it hit me: Something wonderful just happened. This man wanted nothing in return. A complete stranger went out of his way to help me;a purely selfless act. I ran to the stairs a shouted up to him, Hey wait, whats your name? Michael He shouted back, and then kept going. My thank you to him was not just for the shoes, but for restoring some of my faith in the direction of the world. I heard the train pulling in and I turned to catch it. While I was on the train, both shoes on, I opened the Duane Reade bag and found a pair of black flip flops with little diamond studs along the top. I sat in amazement of what just happened. Though I was running late for this very important meeting, a sense of calm clarity came over me. My life is beautiful; full of family, friends and strangers helping me get where I need to go. I know I am on the right path.

Janelles loss: "I'm at Essendon train station waiting for my train to uni. I've been running late but I've managed to make it there from my house in 6 minutes (my new PB). The train pulls up to the platform, I move towards the door, I slide it open, I step forward and my shoe slips off. "Oh dear" I think to myself "That's awkward" and I turn around expecting to find my shoe still outside the train but alas! It is not. So where is my shoe? I cast my eyes downward and there it lies on the train tracks between the train and the platform. I have no choice but to disboard the train, limp up to the ticket booth and ask the station people to retrieve my shoe. So I walked the length of the platform with my head held high disregarding the train full of people and the crowd of highschool students watching me walk around with only one shoe on. When I got to the booth the lady looked at me a bit funny after asking her politely if she could get my shoe off the train tracks but all's well that ends well. I got my shoe back and went on my way."

﻿Carrie in Chicago: "Heartwarming story from this morning: As I was boarding a 2-car purple line train at Howard, a man getting on behind me accidentally stepped on my shoe, which slipped off my foot and fell down between the car and platform. I stood there in shock as the man apologized. I muttered "it's okay" and hobbled off, with one bare foot, to find a CTA person to help fetch my shoe after the train pulled out. I found a friendly CTA guy in the little booth and he accompanied me back to the train, which is still standing in the station. To my surprise, he asked the conductor to pull forward so he could try to get my shoe before the train left, so I could still catch it! The conductor pulled ahead, he climbed down, and fetched it. But just as he was about to hand me my shoe, he suddenly pulled it back, only to present it again with a flourish, Cinderella-style, for me to slip my foot into it! I laughed, thanked him again and again, and hurried off to catch the train, which was still waiting for me! After years of riding the CTA, with plenty of horror stories of my own, it was great to have a very sweet, funny experience with an extremely helpful CTA staff member.

Blacktown Station: "Yesterday was an extremely sad day... just as I was boarding on the train at Blacktown station with my two dear friends, Ree and Bel, my shoe fell off my right foot in the gap between the train and the platform... It was seriously sad... and I don't think the girls will ever let me forget... I had to walk the streets of parramatta with one shoe... (by the way it was really hot and my right foot was burning!!!!!) It was good when we did finally reach Westfield because the cool surface soothed my foot. As a result of my small incident, I had to buy another pair of shoes... there was no way around it... From there everything else went wacked... I mean it... I mean at the end of our shopping day, on the elevator we just lost it... Just ask Ree, Bel and Kaaiza...of course there will always be room for exaggeration for the event that took place on the train station... But I'll always remember that shoe..."

﻿Below is the blog accountof an American girl living in Paris. She loses her slip-on shoe getting on metro. This day was perfection, and I was in happy-daydream-mode as I waited for the metro. I quickly exited happy-daydream-mode when I stepped into the metro car and realized that something was not quite right. I looked down. Ah, yes.One of my shoe was missing, and I was standing in the middle of the train with one bare foot. Quite strange, really, because this foot had had a shoe on it not two seconds earlier... I was sure of it. I turned around just in time to see the little bastard slip into the gap between the platform and the trainplummeting to its death on the tracks below. I didn't need to gasp in horror because everyone around me on the train had already done so. So I just froze in a state of stupefied shock. Luckily, there was a go-getter next to me who pulled me back onto the platform and immediately started scheming about ways to get the shoe back. In the meantime, the conductor noticed the commotion and turned off the train, which, as you can imagine, made me quite popular with the hundreds of metro-riders within. My shoe was down there, but it could not be reached with the train in its current position. My friend gave up (apparently not such a go-getter after all), and the conductor told me to wait there. The authorities were coming. Il faut pas descendre. Do not try to go onto the tracks. And like that, they were gone. The platform was now deserted, save for me and a dazed homeless guy on a bench. The platform across from me, however, was full of people who seemed equally perplexed and amazed at the sight across the way: me... a poor man's Cinderella... but dirtier and more forlorn. So, I waited on the bench next to the homeless guy; we made quite a pair. He covered himself with a bag and fell asleep, and I tried to look as blas as possible, as if wearing one shoe had been a carefully calculated fashion decision with which I was entirely comfortable. I sent a few text messages to alert some friends about my loss of shoe. One response read: Guess you didnt really need that one. Guess not. A few trains came and went, with passengers eyeing me, some in disgust, some in pure awe. I considered trying to jump into the tracks, either to retrieve the shoe or to put myself out of this misery; but I decided that the mortification of losing a shoe and electrocuting myself would be simply too much for one day. Still, no assistance came, so I strategically positioned myself at the end of the platform so that I could speak to the conductor of the next incoming train. As he pulled up, he seemed unsurprised to see me standing there. I knocked on the window sheepishly. My shoe fell in the tracks. Yeah, I heard about you, he replied. Theyre sending someone. Oh good. The word had spread. I returned to my perch next to my homeless friend. As the next few trains passed, I noticed the conductors watching out for me with that unmistakable look of amused disdain. Finally, one of them got out and yelled, The girl who lost the shoe? Yes, thats me. How could you tell? Finally, I spied two RER workers slowly approaching me from the opposite end of the platform. They were in no rush, nor were they amused by the havoc I had caused. They looked at me. They looked at my shoe on the tracks. They left. A few minutes later, they came back with a broom to fish the shoe out. No luck. One went to get another broom. His partner stayed, and I decided it was a good time to make awkward conversation. Does this happen often? I asked. No. Then she told me to go sit down. I obeyed. Then she conceded, Well sometimes people lose phones. But not shoes. Finally her counterpart came back and embarked upon an elaborate shoe rescue endeavor. While the woman watched for oncoming trains, he used the two brooms in a chopstick-like manner and eventually succeeded in lifting my shoe from the tracks below. It was frightened, but intact. Thank you so much. Im so sorry about this, I giggled, immediately realizing that I shouldnt be giggling. He sort of smiled. She didnt. They left. I looked around the platform for someone to share in my joyor at least in the absurdity of my shamebut, strangely, no one wanted to associate with me, not even my homeless guy. The next train came and I hopped on, both my foot and my ego thoroughly soiled. As the train pulled away I wondered, How would a cool French girl have handled that situation? Its pretty clear. A cool French girl would never have been in that situation because (1) she would not be a complete spazz, and (2) she would have been wearing cool French boots, which are what I intend to wear for the remainder of my time in Paris."

From the blog When in Tokyo, an account from Nov 2008: Usually when I ride the trains I'm the one getting pissed off or trodden on, but not today. Next time you ride the train or subway, look down at that space between the platform and the train. Sometimes it's small but other times it's pretty big, and you find yourself wondering if your leg or maybe a small child could accidentally slip down there. Not to worry, this story doesn't involve someone having their leg sawed off while the train is happily departing for the next station, but it does involve that gaping crack between train and platform. When you talk about trains in Tokyo, there's no way to avoid also talking about crowds and lineups. Everybody wants to be the first one through the doors which naturally involves lots of pushing and everyone getting much closer to you than you'd like. I usually try to stay above this childish behaviour but I suppose on this day I was in more of a hurry than usual, and I accidentally stepped on the back of the shoe of the girl in front of me. It promptly fell off her foot and, you guessed it, right into that space between platform and train. In hindsight it's a wonder this kind of thing doesn't happen more often, but that's hindsight. At the time I was mortified that I'd been the cause of something so distressful. I mean, think of it. You suddenly find that you only have one shoe, and the other one is now under the train's wheels and about to get ground up into paste. On top of it all, you're now obliged to stick around and try to find some way to salvage your shoe which means you're going to miss your train, almost as bad as losing a shoe in the first place. Predictably, the girl uttered a horrified 'uso....' (oh my god, no way!) as she watched her shoe disappear into the darkness. Her boyfriend (who was bigger than me), instead of punching me in the face after my startled 'gomen nasai' (sorry!), sadly looked down to where the shoe was now hidden, and turned to her with a consoling expression, not saying anything, while pulling her out of the line up to wait and see if the shoe would survive. It was a depressing sight to say the least. What to do? Should I wait around with them like an unwanted person at a funeral? The line was moving inexorably into the train, leaving the shoeless girl and her boyfriend on the sidelines and I felt myself moving with it. I'll never know if she managed to get her shoe back now, or if she had to hop all the way home, but either way, I'm truly sorry.

﻿This one is from Manolas Shoe Blog: This is just awful. I hate pointy toes. I have wide feet and the arrival of round-toed shoes was a boon. Finally I didnt have to make a choice between shoes that pinched my toes but fitted the rest of my foot and buying them in a non-pinchy bigger size which of course might mean, depending on the cut, that they were possibly a touch too long for my foot. Of course if you got it wrong and they *were* too long in the foot, disaster ensued. Cinderella in a fairy-tale, oh how sweet. In practice leaving your shoe behind as youre bustling along the pavement is a recipe for acute embarrassment. The worst was the day when my shoe fell off my foot onto the train track just as I was getting on to the commuter train. They had to stop the entire train and send the guard off to get the special pick that silly womans shoe off the track stick so that he could retrieve my shoe and return it to me before several hundred people could go to work. I hid my face in my newspaper for the rest of the journey.

Posted byChelsion Dec 19, 2007 in her blog: ... Thursday: I was running to the S-bahn at Helligenstadt and my shoe fell off as soon as I got into the train. It fell underneath the train, therefore I could not reach it. The doors shut tight, keeping me from getting off and retrieving it. I had to walk home with one shoe in the cold and tons of people looking at me oddly. 5 hours later, when I was back at the S-bahn station, my silver slip-on shoe was still there, so I laid down on the side walk and grabbed it. A little embarrassing I must say. But, somehow it was still intact and as good as new.

﻿Katie H's experience from April 22, 2008: ... So here I am alighting the train at Jackson. Left foot, on. Right foot....on, but my shoe has gotten stuck one step behind me on the platform. Before I can wiggle my foot back and into the shoe, the person behind me kicks it, and it FALLS in the crevasse between the train and the platform, down onto the tracks. I'm stunned. I kind of hobble/am pushed onto the train and into a seat by the rush hour crowds. Shoe Kicker Man is badgering me with questions like "was that my fault?" and "oh, were they expensive?" and I'm just stunned. I'm thinking: what the....oh my god...I have no shoe on...I'm on the L and I have no shoe on....call Dan, have him meet you at the station with a pair...oh god, I hope there's nothing nasty on this train...oh FUCK, that was my favorite pair! Suddenly, it seems to dawn on both Shoe Kicker Man and me that we should go back and get it. We hop (me literally) off at Lakeand backtrack. The guy actually jumps down onto the track for me and rescues my shoe, which is amazingly unharmed and free of gross L track slime. YAY! So, thank you, my shoe savoir. Yes, it may actually have been your fault that my shoe was in danger in the first place, but I cannot believe you were kind enough to come back with me and rescue it from peril. You are a true friend of women, and their trendy pumps!

A big-time shoe loss fan, NM came up with this splendid first hand observation from NYC underground: You would think that with the recent trend in women wearing flip flops to and from work, one of these flip flops would either break or slip off. None to be seen............until this week. So this week, I am going down into the subway. Near the token booth, I see a woman, 30-35 or so, leaning against the wall wearing just one kitten heeled flip-flop with a pretty bow on top on her right foot. Her left foot was bare except for a toe ring. Since this has been a long "dry spell", I was compelled to hang around to try and find out what her situation was. She was talking to a friend while either waving her one bare foot in the air, resting it on her shod foot or just resting her toes on the bare concrete floor. The train eventually came and her friend said goodbye and left. I stayed and watched from a distance. A little later, another friend showed up followed by an older woman who gave her an extra pair of flats to wear. They were a little large for her and she seemed reluctant to put them on at first but then did. Holding her one flip-flop in her hand, she and the woman who "rescued" her were talking and started walking over toward my direction where I was standing. I was then hearing most of the conversation and then got the nerve to ask what happened. That's when she told me that as she was boarding the train in the other direction, her shoe came off and fell down onto the track. The door closed before she was able to get off so she had to get off at the next stop, turn around and come back. She told me that the police and transit workers were looking for her shoe but couldn't find it. I asked her if she remembered where it fell. "Yes I do. But I can't go over to the other side in this station without going onto the street and I'm not going to do that without a shoe on. Just then a few policemen showed up. She asked them if they found her shoe to which they replied that they didn't yet. Since by then the third train pulled into the station while I was there, I wished her good luck and made my way onto the train.

Monorail, Monoshoe! Posted by the Princess in disboards: This takes place at MK, or at the monorail station at MK. We got on at Epcot, but when we entered the train a woman stepped on my mums flip flop so it fell off and down on the rails. We couldn't get off the train cause there were so many people getting on, so we had to ride to MK and then get off. We told a CM at MK what happened and he called Epcot station to get them to get and bring it to MK. So we were standing there waiting and waiting while one train after another arrived but no shoe. My mum had only one shoe on, so people were looking at her. All the CM knew about it so they all asked my mum if she was the woman that lost her shoe. Finally the shoe arrived and together with it 5 or 6 CM that all wanted to see who the shoe belonged to. My mum became quite famous, better known as The Woman With The Lost Shoe.

Woman called Jen reported the following in yahoo answers: So embarrassing! I lost my shoe!!!!? I was getting on the underground today when someone must have knocked my shoe because it went flying between the gap and landed on the track! I was so embarrassed, I didnt know what to do! Eventually I found a member of staff who used his stick to get it back. The most embarrasing thing ever. Please tell me Im not alone in this??? Has it happened to anyone else???

Crazy lady replied with an account of her own: "Saw it happen to a woman getting on an overground train. She must have been in a hurry cos she carried on without it!"

Another account to have appeared in Saras blog site la parisienne": I wore my black pumps that I got for the gala a few weeks ago. Being as I usually don't wear heels, I was a little uncomfortable walking long distances but it was ok. We met a few other people with whom we were going out and went to a bar that has 2.50 euro "shooters" (ha) and had a few. Then, since the metro closes at 12:30 am, we had to run and take the RER (faster metro) to make it to our next destination (an Irish bar that is the favorite of another student, Emily, who has studied before in Paris). This is when I lost my shoe. Unlike the regular metro, the RER train has a bit of a void between the platform and the train step. Since we were all rushing to hop on, I tripped a little and my right shoe fell off and down into the abyss. At first I didn't believe that it really happened, and then I wondered what I was going to do about it since we were planning on doing more walking between the metro and the bar. After laughing hysterically about it with everyone, we decided that my best bet was to put something over my stocking-ed foot, and Anna saved the day and gave me one of her pink gloves to wear on it, and I did. One of the other girls took a picture of it, but you will have to wait and see to get the full effect. Not only did I wear the glove on my foot, but I proceeded to race through the metro with everyone else, it was quite a feat. I kind of felt like the guy in that movie Rudy or something where the main character faces a challenge and then ultimately prevails. Everyone else I was with was very helpful and the guys even offered to carry me but I refused as I don't think they would have been able to. I think that shoe had a weird aura or something because it's the same one that I ruined the tip of after tripping on the sidewalk in Baltimore after the gala. I think I'll save the other shoe for a memory of the ridiculous event.

Told by plum1976: The other time was as I was getting onto a train and again, a woman trod on the my heel and the shoe came off and landed on the door step. She reached down to pick it up, and promptly knocked it onto the tracks. Genius. So I had to miss my train and hop back up the platform and up the stairs to get someone to come and fish it off the tracks for me. Amazingly, considering it had just been run over by a train, it was in one piece.

The Shoe That Got Away, blog account by a New Yorker: I begin to hear bells ringing in my head and am all-too-suddenly whisked back to reality. Those arent warning bells or wedding bells or the thousand bells that sound at loves inception. They are the bells that signal the closing subway doors after a scheduled stop. My stop. Shit! I leap from my seat and squeeze through the remaining four-inch gap that is to be my exit. More Three Stooges than Indiana Jones, I slip just shy of a graceful getaway and in order not to literally fall on my face (Ive already accomplished this metaphorically), turn toward the train from the outside and bob up and down on the one leg that isnt being held hostage by the downtown E train. My right foot is now trapped between two large wedges of thoughtfully designed MTA steel and rubber retractable doors. And they are not retracting! After a painfully long three seconds, in which the conductor is screaming at me to release the door, I realize I have no choice but to forfeit my shoe my new, perfect, from my favorite pair of shoes shoe to the God of I tried to beat the train doors. I scrunch my toes back and forth while my gravity-defying sandal maintains a two-inch wedge for me to slide out of. And just when I am nearing freedom, the doors bounce back and snap shut as efficiently as the jaw of an alligator, knocking me off balance so I fall very unmetaphorically on my ass and taking my shoe, my guy, and my dignity along with them. I pick myself up, collect the compact, dayrunner, and myriad personal effects that fell from my bag and scattered across the platform, and limp up the Seventh Avenue escalator with one shoe, a foreign piece of gum, of which I am unaware, stuck to my back jean pocket, and what is now a terribly bad hair day. I feel like an Army ad gone astray.

Train Loss Both Shoes! Below is another blog account: "... I have to tell you all about a very embarrassing experience that I had yesterday... ok, I was running to get onto the train at Padstow (on my way to work) and was dashing into the carriage and one of my shoes goes flying off and hits this woman, so I go "ah shit" and step in to retrieve my shoe, next thing my OTHER shoe drops down the gap! ok, THE GAP, the "please mind the gap when boarding and alighting from the train" -that gap... so here my dilemma, doors are closing, to get my shoe thats in the carriage, or to get my shoe down the gap! I cannot do both! I jump off the carriage, train doors shut, train starts moving... SHIT. So I then had to run down to where the little man hangs out the door and say "STOP THE TRAIN! MY SHOE IS ON THE TRAIN!" I swear, what a nutjob! And he looked at me like I was a nutjob! He didnt really comprehend it until the train was like 1/2 way off the platform and he stopped the train... then it took about3 minutes (andthree minutes is a long time when people arepeering at you out of the windowswondering why you stopped the train and made them late for work goddammit!)...I cannot believe the scenario I am in though so I am laughing my ass offon the platform thinking "omigosh! I am a knob!"...anyway, doors opened, women who was hit with my shoe throws me shoe back at me and I sheepishly wave thanks to the door guy, train doors shut and the train moves on... I then am left having to jump onto the tracks (which is very illegal!) and retrieve my other shoe! Shoeless! So I jumped onto these massive sharp rock things and KILLED my feet, they're actually bruised! Then had to climb back onto the platform and killed my hands on the gravel pulling myself back up.... seriously! So now people, the point of this is, IF CITYRAIL EVER RUNS LATE, WE KNOW WHY! Its because people lose their shoes, its quite simple, I cant be the only moron out there!!! But another point to note is that, it would have been a whole lot more simple if I had just got on the train to get shoe that was on the train, and then got off at the next station and gone back to Padstow to get my shoe that was on the tracks... but you only think of these things after..."

The following is the blog account by sunkissfish, posted on April 7, 2006: This sounds like an essay you write when you are in primary school. Up till today, i have yet experienced anything so embarrassing. Make a guess? It has something to do with the MRT station. Previously, i got stuck in a gap on the floor and broke my strap. I had to walk to work in a funny manner. Today was the ultimate. While i was boarding the train, my shoe hit upon the ledge of the train. And next, it was missing from my foot. The man standing beside me said, "I think your shoe has fallen into the hole." To my horror, i saw a bit of my shoe trapped in the gap between the ledge and the train. Immediately, i stepped out of the train and walked semi-barefooted to look for help. I saw a station staff nearby and approached him. "Er, my shoe has dropped down the railway track." Staff A replied, "Don't worry. You just stand aside and relax." I thought: how to relax? So embarrassing. The commuters on the platform are piling up and they see this girl without one shoe. Staff A radioed for help and soon staff B appeared with a snake catcher. When the train had gone, he used it to hook up my shoe. Yay, shoe rescued. So MRT staff are essential. A BIG thank you. But then i had to fill in a form about their level of service. I complied cos they had helped me. I wrote: professional in their management (cos they din laugh at me. Then again, mabbe something like that had happened before)

Posted on Oct 20, 2005 by Ashley: For those of you who live in the northeast (NYC) you know how the weather has been well....CRAPPY. Its been miserable -- cold, rainy, literally the worst weather known to man.... On Wednesday of last week I was making one of those many trips into NYC to blow money on boards, paper and other supplies, all while it is POURING out. Of course do I have an umbrella? Not a chance that either me or my roommate are prepared. So I go into the city early before class to go pick out boards and purchase them. ... so I catch the train (barely made it, sign number two that I should have stayed home) and head down to the city. Once I arrive I catch the subway over to Times Square and then I transfer to the 1 train. Sign number 3 coming up: the train was already there and I was going to miss it. So I run down the stairs run across the platform and step inside the train and whoooooooooooosh I slip. One foot in the car, one foot out. It gets better. My legs are not meant to go to splitsville, but thats what they did. And while my one foot inside the car is just ice skating across the car floor, my other foot goes right between the platform and the car. Really great place to be. At that point the guy behind me picks me up and while doing so my foot gets caught in that little gap. So of course I'm focusing on getting my foot out of the gap before the door closes on my ankle and all pain breaks loose. So I get my foot out and whoops. There goes my shoe. Did I mention I was wearing FLIPFLOPS? What kind of idiot does that?!?! Oh wait, that would be me! Yes you read right. My shoe. Is gone. Fell right onto the tracks. So there I am, standing on one leg, barefoot in the disgusting subway. I hop out (literally) at the next stop and hop upstairs, and then hop around 34th street looking for a shoe store. I seriously felt homeless and probably looked it, at this point. And of course there are lakes and streams of water everywhere and I have to step in all of them because hopping doesn't really work that well. I dashed inside Old Navy and grabbed the first pair of boots I saw. Meanwhile the two sales people have heard my story and are sitting on the ground laughing hysterically. I would be too if I weren't hoppity the frog and missing a shoe. (Once I was dry I had a great laugh, until I realized those $3 flipflops cost me 30 bucks.) Soo the moral of the story is: Don't ever go into the city in the pouring rain again. Oh yeah and don't wear flipflops in the rain either.

Caroline lost her shoe in the gap between the platform and the subway (while visiting Rome).From webshots.

"Snowman" contributed the following account, told by GP: ... A close friend of mine and I were on the homeward leg of our daily rail and bus journey some weeks back. It began with short trip by EMU (Electric multiple unit) train and continued beyond the rail network by bus. I boarded the EMU at an earlier station and Doreen was to join me at the next one. She failed to check the weather forecast and was wearing flat backless shoes because her feet hurt from overdoing the heels earlier in the week. A heavy weather front swept in suddenly carrying a blizzard. In her haste to board one of her shoes neatly dropped into the gap, but caught itself between the train and the platform. I was in a seat and got up when I say her turn and kneel. I didnt need to be told why. I knew that morning that those shoes were trouble. If she had jumped off she could have reached the shoe, but she wanted to keep her foot dry so she reached down from inside the train which was 6 or 8 inches higher than the platform. When I got to her, the buzzer was sounding for doors closing, and in the mad scramble to get off and rescue the shoe, the EMU retained the one that boarded. So now she was in three inches of slush wearing nothing more than thin opaque red nylon socks The scream she let out from the shock of warm feet hitting the cold slush was blood curdling. But now the first deserter was on the track bed four feet or more below us, and the other was enjoying a free ride on the EMU. The station attendant refused to help because of the train density (or he just wanted to get a good eyefull). After an hour of looking over the edge, letting trains go by and making plans to jump down and get up between trains,I made her abandon it The snow was not letting up, and our bus journey was over two hours. ... A short uncomfortable walk through a combinationof snow and slush got her to the bus. The bus journey took over five hours and the bus dropped her near her door later that night and the danger passed."

A blog account posted on Jan 17, 2005: Recently my sister was travelling back from Gatwick after a gruelling week in the Netherlands, negotiating with the hardest of Dutch businessmen. As she struggled with her bags to board the Gatwick Express that was about to leave, an unfriendly man behind her hassled her, "For goodness sake hurry up". Flustered, my sister lurched inside the train and in one smooth action lost one of her shoes between the gap and watched it fall onto the rails below the train. Panicked, rather than get off the train to negotiate shoe removal with the nearest Railtrack employee, she sat in her seat with just the one remaining shoe as the train left the platform. She then spent the rest of the journey wondering how she was going to get home to south London with one shoe. Pulling herself together (and, bless her, making a phone call to mum to ask for some kind of help), she got off the train at Victoria and hopped to find a station manager who could help her. One call from the station manager and a return trip to Gatwick she was met again at the other end by a young uniformed man, smirking as he held her shoe in his hand. This would have been a more magical story if he had turned out to be her Prince Charming. Sadly not, but she did get the shoe back in one piece and made me laugh for days at the thought of her hopping across the station concourse."

Aappeared under the title Lucys Book on Sep 30th, 2003 in a website: That evening I went to catch my usual train at Vauxhall station. I stepped up onto the train when it arrived... and left my shoe behind on the platform. It was a little ballet type shoe that just slipped off my foot. And then, I stepped back down to try to hook the shoe back on, and managed to kick it down off the platform underneath the train. Clever huh? I was so shocked I couldn't think what to do. I was between the doors of the train and my first instinct was just to get on the train, so I did. Of course, I then realised that I should have stayed on the platform and tried to get it back! But instead I felt like a right idiot sitting there with one shoe on the train, and everyone around me was just ignoring it like they tend to do in London. I think I might have felt better if someone had at least laughed! Anyway it wasn't too bad in the end. My friend Lee had texted me earlier asking if he could stay with me for the night cos he had a gigs in the area - he's a musician. I was supposed to be meeting him but I called him and asked him to come pick me up from at Barnes Bridge station instead. I had to wait about half an hour for him to find the bloody station, freezing my ass off with one shoe, but it was ok in the end.

Here is another real-life shoe loss incident in a London tube station, posted by Kristina on May 29, 2003 in jennyheels: "...I was on my way home after work and I decided to take a look at the high street shops on the way to Bond Street tube station. Now I normally wear 4" heels to work due to the fact that I have rather large feet *giggles* I normally go to another train station to go home but as I wanted to do a little extra shopping I found myself waiting on the train platform due for almost 15 mins due to train delays. I was standing near the edge of the platform for the Jubilee line reading a book. Finally the train arrived and as I said before the platform was absolutely packed with people! Unfortunately I was paying attention to my book when I stepped into the carriage. The idiot behind me stepped on my right heel as I was lifting it to step into the train, causing it to momentarily dangle from my nylon clad toe and slip right in between the train and the platform....yep that's right the shoe fell under the platform on the train tracks!! I was absolutely fuming! The guy behind me tried to catch my pump but in vain. I guess he then felt to embarrassed and turned around and didn't get onto the train. Due to the rush of people going into the train I was forced to move and leave my shoe under the train. Thankfully they weren't one of my favorite pumps, (they were half a size too big which is probably why it slipped off my foot so easily!) but even so, i was so angry and embarrassed at everyone looking at my foot that I just took the other pump off. I had to walk barefoot between stations and then home! Not to mention it had rained the day before so my feet were dirty and numb by the time I got home! That's the last time I wear loose fitting shoes!"

It seems she was not the only with such experience, as a guy called "Max from Russia" posted the following reply on June 1, 2003:"My wife once lost her spiked heeled sandal at the edge of the platform -- between it and the train. The shoe caught the platform's edge and was there, till she caught it back. Our idea was to wait for the train to depart, then me to jump down to tracks and recover the shoe, not touching the 800V contact rail for sure. Too good it was not necessary."

From a website: I've had a few embarrassing moments thanks to the NYC Subway system. They are documented below. Lost -- It's about 8:30am on a weekday morning, and I'm on my way to work. It's early March, and the Winter has been relatively mild. The temperature is in the mid-forties. As the subway approached the 23rd Street stop, I started to move into position to exit the car. So did others. The doors opened, and we all made to move to get out. As I was leaving the car, just as I was about the move my left foot from behind me to in front of me, the person behind me managed to step on the back of my foot and pin my shoe to the floor. I fell forward, out of my shoe, and out of the car. I managed to get up and start to go back for my shoe, but alas, I was too late. The doors closed. I waited right next to the door hoping that it would open quickly enough for me to get my foot in there to keep it from opening, and someone on the inside would hand me my shoe. No such luck. The subway started to move, and my shoe was on a nice little trip to the Brooklyn Bridge. Dejected, I trudged to work. My little toes got quite cold during the four block walk to my office. I must have looked a little funny walking around without a shoe, but this is NYC, people have seen a lot weirder. After getting to work, and enduring quite a few comments about my lack of attire ("what, you get dressed in the dark?", "Can't afford two shoes?", etc.) I started to do some work until 10am when the shoe store a few blocks away would open. After walking over to the shoe store and finding a pair of shoes that I liked, the salesperson asked what happened to my shoe. I explained it, and he told me that I was about the fourth person that year that he had seen to have the same problem. At least I'm not alone."

She comes right up behind me and she's moving just too fast Her foot bumps on my ankle and descends down to my heel Then a draught upon my foot is the sensation that I feel For my shoe has come right off and there it's balanced on the edge As I watch it falls right over, down below the platform ledge So I jump straight off the train and I am looking at my shoe As the people laugh at me and I just don't know what to do But the girl is very nice and says because it was her fault She'll find someone to get my shoe, but I still feel a dolt For the trains go in and out and still I'm standing at the side With a set of lovely toes that I just cannot seem to hide All the passengers are noticing that I have lost one shoe They all seem to find it funny - well I know that it is true But I wish that they would hurry and get back my shoe for me For as I stand upon the platform I have lost all dignity Then the men arrive at last, but on the inside I still groan For one of them is laughing, and he holds a megaphone I hope he will not use it to announce to all the world 'Hey, look at this, we're pulling up a lost shoe for this girl' In the end my shoe is OK and they give it back to me After thanking them profusely, to go home now I am free For the next few days I'm thinking, even though it doesn't suit

I will try to get to work on time, but use a different route.﻿﻿

It appears shoe loss while getting on and off the trains leads by far any other loss categories. Most are first-hand accounts transferred here from Real Stories, others are a few rare photographic evidence of loss on tracks.